The prospective fictional pitfalls are many: 16-year-old Evie Hutchins, a backwoods-Maryland preacher's daughter, is spending the summer in the "godless household" of cousin Donna lean and her husband Tom—where, inevitably, her faith will waver and her own home, locked into ritual and good works, will lose something of its luster. But Naylor manages the crucial situation—the at-home birth and devastating "crib death" of Donna lean and Tom's baby—with sufficient emotional conviction (and infant-nurture detail) to carry Evie's self-searchings along. The book is still largely a composite, in which the various strands gradually and salubriously merge. Evie's loathed cousin Matt demonstrates that a skeptic can be a healthy influence and a moral bulwark. Her personable love-interest, Chris, turns out to be rather a lightweight. Her father's acceptance, even defense of Matt proves him not to be a narrow-minded zealot. Her sister Rose, who lost Tom to Donna lean, takes the first step toward reconciliation by attending baby Josh's funeral—and Donna Jean, crushed by Josh's death, takes the answering step of spending a restorative day at the Hutchins'. Erie, meanwhile, takes heart from the healing of breaches and the tolerance of doubts, and even begins to think seriously of Matt—whom we recognize early on as her counterpart in the search for selfhood. There's a lot of worthiness, in short, but the fluent, low-key storytelling, plus the vivid presence of baby Josh, will probably prevent readers from recognizing the underlying manipulation.
Pub Date: Sept. 10, 1982
ISBN: 0449700755
Page Count: -
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1982
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The greening of Dr. Seuss, in an ecology fable with an obvious message but a savingly silly style. In the desolate land of the Lifted Lorax, an aged creature called the Once-ler tells a young visitor how he arrived long ago in the then glorious country and began manufacturing anomalous objects called Thneeds from "the bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees." Despite protests from the Lorax, a native "who speaks for the trees," he continues to chop down Truffulas until he drives away the Brown Bar-ba-loots who had fed on the Tuffula fruit, the Swomee-Swans who can't sing a note for the smogulous smoke, and the Humming-Fish who had hummed in the pond now glumped up with Gluppity-Glupp. As for the Once-let, "1 went right on biggering, selling more Thneeds./ And I biggered my money, which everyone needs" — until the last Truffula falls. But one seed is left, and the Once-let hands it to his listener, with a message from the Lorax: "UNLESS someone like you/ cares a whole awful lot,/ nothing is going to get better./ It's not." The spontaneous madness of the old Dr. Seuss is absent here, but so is the boredom he often induced (in parents, anyway) with one ridiculous invention after another. And if the Once-let doesn't match the Grinch for sheer irresistible cussedness, he is stealing a lot more than Christmas and his story just might induce a generation of six-year-olds to care a whole lot.
Pub Date: Aug. 12, 1971
ISBN: 0394823370
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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